All of these were once in Installer (heck, remember Installer?!?) as jailbreak apps - pre-AppStore. Those were just some of the apps ModMyi hosted, and there's tons more that were on Installer on other sources - TapTap Revolution, NeverPutt, Lights Off, Twinkle, iBeer, WeDict, Trism, Sketches, DropCopy, iComic, Tunewiki, Labyrinth, Lexitron, Crosswalk, iWoman, MPG, CalcPaper, ShopList, Domino, ToDo, iSlots, and PocketMoney for example. When the AppStore went live, many devs were able to use their extensive testing in the jailbreak community to release great AppStore apps. (Here's iTunes links for the ones I named in first paragraph: Buzzer | Band | THTouch | Garf | Dactyl | iBlackjack (now Blackjack 21) ).

The AppStore started as a brilliant new market for devs to gather success in, and guaranteed instant ROI for early entrants. Now, however, with the number of apps pushing past 60,000, the AppStore is fast becoming a cluttered file cabinet in which nothing can be found. $0.99 apps reign supreme on every top chart, forcing large companies to rethink decisions on million dollar budgets for flippin sweet games they could have sold at $9.99 (as they did early on) in favor of cheaper apps they can churn out monthly and sell at a buck or three. Sure, "there's an app for that," definitely rings true with 60k apps... but where's the innovation going to be if you drive all devs into $0.99 RefuseLand?

Apple obviously banked on success with this model of profit (sell a sweet phone, make money off the software), but I'm pretty sure they didn't have a clue HOW successful it would be. The payment system and reporting areas for AppStore devs are anything BUT Apple-esque. They're confusing, strangely organized, and payments often come in late and unlabeled. Amounts are regularly off (assuming from the various tax laws) but with no clear explanation anywhere. Apps are approved in a day or in 90, with no standard and no reason. Dev's receive rejection letters citing outlandish reasoning, while other apps whose sole objection is to shake a baby to its death are approved (albeit quickly pulled when the media gets wind of it). Fart apps are told they can't be in the AppStore, then weeks later reach the top 10. It seems Apple needs to hire some more folks to keep up and revitalize.

Meanwhile, the Cydia Store is becoming a more and more viable option for individual developers. With nearly a quarter million dollars in revenue already, developers are starting to pay more attention to Cydia as a sustainable source of income. While $250,000 in revenue over a few months is paltry compared to the AppStore's glory, it's impressive none-the-less - Cydia has less than 40 paid packages currently. It's got a user base of millions, and with a much smaller number of packages, sales are doing great for devs. I've got emails in my inbox from more than one AppStore dev thinking about pulling their app from Apple and vending in Cydia instead. And we're not the only one - other Cydia repo owners are already hosting lite versions of AppStore apps as advertisement, and incoming AppStore apps removed from Apple are the next logical step for many devs.

Of course, this is not to say the AppStore isn't a solid way to generate income - it definitely is. The point being, until recently, it was the ONLY option, and is congested and feeling some growing pains. It's very interesting to see emails coming in from devs thinking about backing OUT of the AppStore into Cydia.

Welcome.

Finally, why not give something away? Buzzer, one of those Cydia to AppStore apps, just hit the AppStore recently, and we've got 5 promo codes to give out. Only works in the US AppStore, so be aware of that. All you've gotta do to win one is reply to this thread with your thoughts on the story (if you've got one sentence to say, I'm not even gonna count it), and we'll choose 5 random winners Thursday morning (EST).

Nice, This app was from 1.1.2 jailbreak...this was one of the only good games that were out in Installer(when it was good) It's pretty cool how they make these apps for jailbroken iPod touches and iPhones and then move them over to the AppStore, I'm surprised Apple lets them. This will probably be on the Top Paid Apps the first month, maybe even the first week!

Woops spelled Installer wrong, I spelled it like that other blocked word.

Honestly if I was thinking about developing for the iPhone or iPod Touch I would most likely go for the cydia store as the AppStore is becoming way overcrowded and the amount of cydia users is ever increasing. I'm wondering though, what's stoping devs from posting their app on both stores? Does Apple look at cydia products and then kick them out of the AppStore? Anyway I'm very impressed with cydia and use many jailbroken only apps everyday.

Honestly if I was thinking about developing for the iPhone or iPod Touch I would most likely go for the cydia store as the AppStore is becoming way overcrowded and the amount of cydia users is ever increasing. I'm wondering though, what's stoping devs from posting their app on both stores? Does Apple look at cydia products and then kick them out of the AppStore? Anyway I'm very impressed with cydia and use many jailbroken only apps everyday.

Tha's what I was thinking, can't they put it in the AppStore and Cydia Store for the same price?

Awesome. The impact that the jailbreak community has made and continues make blows my mind. This scores pretty high on my holyshitometer.You know what they say, competition breeds..............................

I personally think Apple needs to hire someone to throw out junk from the app store. It would make guiding through it much easier and I don't think anyone would miss the least 400 popular flashlight apps.

The appstore seems to me to to a big mess. Its hard to navigate, apps appear then disappear (rarely reappearing). Almost all games are low quality simple games, I actuality prefer a nice balance of advanced games like Need For Speed or Monopoly. As for other games wtf is up with 30 respect pints there are more of these pos game out the on the app store than any other kind of game or app. whats happening to the appstore is that it was launched in a time when the economy was regressing and people were (and still are) wanting cheep entertainment on their device they just shelled out $200+ for. So now developers have to compete for what little income comes into the appstore so they lower their prices. In the end I end up ignoring most appstore apps and hunt for what actualy sparks my interest.

I love the Cydia app store. I think it's really great that some developers are considering pulling away from the cluttered App Store and moving to the jailbroken alternative. And I was actually amazed to read that the Cydia apps have brought in a quarter-million dollars! That's insane for such a small user base compared to the mainstream apps out there. Viva la jailbreak!

In my opinion, what Apple needs to do is stop "Lite" and "Demo" apps from making it to the top of the AppStore. I know I don't like seeing the AppStore filled up with Lite games/apps. Now what Apple needs to do is require the Developers to acknowledge the "Lite" version from within the full version's page (Download Page), so that if the person wants to try out the app, all they have to do is tap the "Lite" version's link.

I'm pretty sure there are flaws with this method, but I personally think Apple should consider this, if they want fresh content on the AppStore.

Sure there's an app for that, or maybe a "crapp" for that. My biggest problem with the app store is there are literally thousands of apps that do absolutely nothing! Unfortunately I can see where a fart machine could generate .99c, so I'm not bashing apps that i personally have no use for, but it makes it difficult to find a useful app when you have to sort through the "crapps" first. I personally have purchase apps from both the app store and through cydia and I don't want to take this down the wrong path, but I have also "tried" apps from other sources. I also purchased the ones i could use and delete the ones I don't use. The reason for "trying" them is that the app store demo's won't let you get a full feel for the app. Example: I needed an app to track my mileage for work. There are several on the app store. Some of the ones I checked out let you put in a maximum of 3 trips. That didn't give me a chance to see if the input of several trips a day would be tedious or not and since I couldn't get a report from the demo, how would I know if it will format properly. Long story short, I "tried" a few and ended up purchasing Triplog/1040 for $12.99 (which from the app store's description would not have been my first choice). I would have went for another one that as it turns out wouldn't do what I needed. Before the app store, I purchased Swirly MMS and Mcleaner after using it and iBlacklist for the trial periods. The problem with that, I upgraded to an iPhone 3G and would have to purchase them again. So there is good and bad with both the app store and jailbroken apps. Sorry for rambling...